Class Action: The Greening of Academe

The dawn of the new school year has brought with it a corps of fresh-faced ideas and initiatives aimed at making colleges and universities cleaner and greener. And, like any freshman class, they are all beaming with potential: Most will succeed, a handful will excel, and a few will end up disappointing their parents.

The greening of academe is nothing new, but it seems to have taken root in a big way. Today, it's not just about doing a few good, green things -- recycling, buying green energy, building green buildings, and all the rest -- and it's not just about saving money or being seen as a good neighbor. It's about being seen as a sustainability leader in order to attract students, funding, and media attention.

As a result, in a growing number of schools, "green" has become the Big Meme on Campus.

That's the topic of my column this month on Grist. It explains why getting colleges and universities to make the grade as environmental leaders is no slam dunk. Like their corporate counterparts, schools face a variety of challenges and barriers, from a lack of top-level commitment, to institutional inertia, to a dearth of answers to the seemingly simple question "How good is 'good enough'?"

Read on . . .

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